By vernon Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

The first phase of the Moapa Valley Trails system is expected to be completed by this summer, according to a county report made to the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) on Wednesday, January 11.

Clark County Public Works engineer Joe Yatson, who reported to the MVTAB, said that the project is currently out to bid and construction is expected to begin shortly after the Clark County Fair in April. Construction on the project is expected to take two months.

Phase one is meant to create a trails network which connects Grant Bowler Elementary School and the adjacent fairgrounds complex to Moapa Valley High School. A pedestrian/biking trail will be built along several streets in the area including Whipple Ave. from Moapa Valley Blvd to Heyer Street, Lyman and Heyer Streets from Whipple to Gubler, Frehner Ave. from Lyman to Heyer, Gubler Ave. from Lyman to St. Joseph St., and St. Joseph from Gubler Ave. to Wittwer Ave. at the high school.

This multi-use trail will be an eight foot wide strip of asphalt alongside each of the roadways.

The existing sidewalks around the high school and near Bowler Elementary would also be incorporated as part of the trail system.

In addition, a specially-dedicated Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) trail will be built of loose gravel, 9-10 feet in width, along the north side of Whipple Ave.

Yatson explained that, because of difficulties in obtaining rights of way, the construction project would require two brief road closures. One would be a five day closure on Whipple Ave. between the alignment of Paiute and Berkley. The other would be an eight day closure of Lyman Street roughly between Frehner and Neal.

Those in attendance at the MVTAB meeting asked about whether these closures could be timed to occur after school gets out for the summer. Yatson said that he would add this request into consideration in planning the project’s construction.

Yatson stated that the trails project has been the product of more than a decade of work by the community. He explained that discussion about trails in the community began with the Moapa Valley Strategic Planning Committee in 2001. Phase 1 was identified some time after that through a series of public meetings.

The county funded a Moapa Valley Trails Study which was concluded in 2009. The study incorporated the already identified Phase 1 into a larger network of proposed trails for various uses.

Yatson acknowledged that the project had been fraught with delays. Several years ago, the county had started to work with a company on engineering Phase 1, he said.

“But we couldn’t come to an agreement on the cost,” Yatson said. “So we brought it back and decided to do it in-house with existing staff. Since then the county has had two rounds of layoffs. With each one we have lost the staff that was working on this project.”

At this point, the project is on a tight timeline, Yatson explained. Phase 1 was funded at $3.2 million by monies from public land sales as part of the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA). But that money must be committed to the project by March or it goes back to the federal government, Yatson said.

Phase 1 is also coming in significantly under budget. Because of lower construction costs in the market, the project, which was funded at $3.2 million, is only costing a little less than $1 million, Yatson said. What happens to the other $2.2 million?

“Whatever money we don’t spend will go back to the federal government,” Yatson said.

During public comment, Matt Hodkowski of Overton asked what plans had been made for the next phases of the trails plan.

“I’m not a planner,” Yatson said. “I am not sure what are the plans for phases 2, 3, and 4 of the plan.”

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” Hodkowski said. “If the plans aren’t complete and you have had all this time to work and now you have money left over, who wouldn’t we put the money to work on Phase 2?”

“We are just glad to get the project started,” said MVTAB member Gene Houston. “We started talking about this all the way back in 2001. We thought it was funded and we’ve been waiting a long time. It will be good to get the project off the ground.”

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